The UN's top humanitarian official has said conditions for displaced Burmese Muslim Rohingyas are "dire", and called on Burma to improve them. 

Valerie Amos made the comments after visiting camps in Rakhine state. 

More than 135,000 people displaced during six months of ethnic conflict are living in camps in the state, the vast majority of them Rohingyas. 

The BBC's Jonah Fisher says Rohingyas are living in much worse conditions than Rakhine Buddhists. 

He says a camp on the peninsula of Myebon, exclusively for Rakhine Buddhists, had smart tents, working sanitation and a regular delivery of food and medical supplies. 

But a short drive up the road - past the burnt-out squares that were once their homes - some 4,000 Rohingya Muslims live crammed together on a fetid pile of mud, surrounded by streams of water filled with sewage, our correspondent adds. 

There are Burmese guards on all sides to stop them leaving, he says.

"It's a dire situation and we have to do something about it," Baroness Amos told the BBC. 

"Unfortunately we as the United Nations are not able to get in and do the range of work we would like to do with those people, so the conditions are terrible." 

She said UN efforts had been hampered by administrative and visa problems, as well as by a lack of funding. 

The UN has received less than one-third of the $65m (£40m) it says it needs for Rakhine. 

Baroness Amos called for the international community to be more generous, but also said the Burmese authorities had to help with reconciliation. 

She said tensions in the area remained "extremely high". 

"The government also has a responsibility, they have to take the lead," she said. "They have to work to bring the communities together and that work has got to start now." 

Our correspondent says Rakhine Buddhists control all the land around the camp for Rohingyas, and that bringing help is almost impossible. 

This separation of communities is now seen across Rakhine, he adds.

Maung Daw, Arakan- At 8:30PM this evening, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) from Camp Base-15 of Region (Nay-Myay)-7 arrested two innocent Rohingyas from the village of Baggona, Maung Daw and torched around 40 Rohingyas’ shops in the village. Therefore, Rohingyas lost around 60 Million Kyats as the shops were burnt down. 

“The head NaSaKa of Camp Base-15 of Region (Nay-Myay)-7 ordered his Junior NaSaKas not to arrest any Rohingya from the village. But by ignoring the senior’s order, this evening, some Junior NaSaKa arrested two innocent Rohingyas who were coming out of the mosques after prayer. The two Rohingyas are Fir Mohammed S/o Mohammed Yunus (age-33) and Mv Mohammed Naim S/o (age-50). When these two Rohingyas shouted in their inability to bear up the beating and torturing of these NaSaKas, Rohingyas from the village tried to save them. Then, subsequently, the NaSaKas opened fire at them. 

So as to avoid the questions why they fired at people and the punishments to be given for breaking the Head NaSaKa’s order, they (junior NaSaKas) set fire to the Rohingyas’ shops. They torched the shops to set up a plot that they had to start shooting at Rohingyas because they (Rohingyas) were trying to torch their shops to blame Rakhines for it. Now, Military and the head of the NaSaKa came to the village where the burning took place. We are anticipating that something bad will come up against us and we might be arrested, tortured and can even be killed for something we but they have done” said a Rohingya Elder from a nearby village. 

It is a usual tragedy that Rohigyas have been facing for months. They are paying the price for doing nothing. They are wronged and abused. Instead of having justice, they are facing the double victimization.

Breaking News: The NaSaKa forces of the Ma-Kyi-Chaung County, Maungdaw Township has set fire the bazaar of Ba-Gone-Nar village at about 9:00 pm of today. There are about more than 100 shops and the bazaar is still blazing and the lost estimate of the total assessment is still unavailable.

British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire on Tuesday assured Britain’s Parliament that human rights issues were “very much on his agenda” on his upcoming trip to Burma.

Addressing Swire, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy that she was concerned that other recent trade delegations led by the Foreign Office seemed to have said “very little” about human rights during their visits.

“Can the minister assure me that the plight of the Rohingyas, the fate of political prisoners, and other human rights issues in Burma will be very much on his agenda when he goes to Burma?” she asked during the UK Parliament’s traditional Tuesday question time.

“I can certainly give her that assurance,” Swire replied.

“We continue to raise our concerns about the recent violence in Rakhine State, as well as the conflict in Kachin and Shan states, with Burmese ministers and Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said.

Moments earlier, Conservative MP David Burrowes had enquired: “Does it not surprise him [Swire] that Aung San Suu Kyi, the most respected and peaceable person in Burma, has been in effect excluded from steps to resolve the situation in Rakhine? Will he urge the Burmese Government to invite Aung San Suu Kyi to visit Rakhine State as soon as possible to help to calm the situation?”

Swire responded that the issue was raised with Suu Kyi by the British Premier David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague during her visit to the UK in June.

“I will travel to that part of the world shortly and I will certainly discuss the issue with her, because I believe she has a role in resolving it and, indeed, all the problems facing Burma today,” he said.

On October 29, Swire said, he called in the Burmese Chargé d’Affaires to the Foreign Office “to discuss our serious concerns about the violence in Rakhine State and the casualties and displacement among Rohingya people.”

Qutub Shah & M.S. Anwar

RB News

December 04, 2012

Buthidaung, Arakan- On 1st December 2012, at Ye Seik Pyin Hamlet of Sindhi Frang (Sei Yein Pyin) village tract in Buthidaung, Rakhine extremists vandalized a hand of Buddha Statue with a view to persecuting and creating more violence against Rohingyas in the township. The following day, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) arrested seven innocent Rohingyas with the false accusation of this vandalism. It is feared that more Rohingyas might get arrested sooner or later. 

“Rakhine terrorists themselves broke the hand of the Bhudda statue in order to create more chances to persecute Rohingyas. Expectedly, NaSaKa arrested seven Rohingyas for something which they have never involved in. Of them, four were released after the extortion of money and other were handed over to the Police. Their details are:

1. Mohammed Jamil S/o Moghul Ahmed (Released after the extortion of Kyat 5 Lakhs)
2. Imam Hussain S/o Mansoor (Released after the extortion of Kyat 75 Thousands) 
3. Zafar Ahmed S/o Ghani Meah (Released after the extortion of Kyat 75 Thousands) 
4. Mohammed Sadek S/o Jamal Hussain (Released after the extortion of 1.5 Lakhs) 
5. Kabir Ahmed S/o Mubarak Ali (Handed over to Police) 
6. Amir Hussain S/o Rashid Ahmed (Handed over to Police) 
7. Lalu S/o…? (Handed over to Police)” reported by a Local Rohingya from Buthidaung. 

Maung Daw, Arakan - 

Case #1 

At 4PM yesterday (i.e. on 3rd December 2012), while the judge of the Maung Daw Tsp Court was going on his way in his car recklessly driven by his drunkard son, a Rohingya teenager was almost hit by the mentioned car near to the Maung Daw Clock Tower. Subsequently, the judge immediately stopped and got off from the car and chased the boy to beat. The boy, fortunately, could manage to escape the horror scene leaving his bicycle behind. In his desperate to beat the boy, the judge ran his car over the bicycle and made it into pieces. He sent the pieces to the Police station and reportedly filed a case against the boy according to a Rohingya elder from Maung Daw. 

Is he a judge or barbarian? It is not to get forget that he has been one of the Rakhine extremist leaders who have been inciting hatred and violence against Rohingyas since June. 

Case #2 

In another case in Maung Daw, at 3:00PM on 4th December 2012, a Rohingya named Azizul Haque S/o Abu Sayed was arrested at Phyu Gyi Camp by NaSaKa (Border Security Force) accusing that he is under the blacklist of the recent violence. He was on his way to Bangladesh by legal means, using Border Trade Pass. The irony is that he was white-listed recently. He was just an ordinary shopkeeper who used to lead a simple life. He was handed over to Police and is awaiting his bad destiny like other arrested Rohingyas. 

Case #3 

A Rohingya was injured seriously as a NaSaKa (Border Security Force) member recklessly fired at him. 

This is how it happened! 

At 12:40 PM on 4th December 2012, he was going to Mayu Hilltract through the villages of Khawar Bil (Kyi Kan Pyin) and Aung Zaya (a NaTaLa Rakhine village) to get firewood. Meanwhile, he was attacked by some Rakhine terrorists. And NaSaKa member recklessly fired and a bullet hit the Rohingya’s leg. We are inquiring his details. 

Case #4 

Authority in Maung Daw is driving out Rohingya people in full swing so as to decrease their population. It has been already six months that Rohingyas have been killed, arrested, tortured, cut off their economic, foods and medicine lines and their women raped etc. So, now, authority in Maung Daw has declared that Rohingyas have a way to escape the persecution. That is Leaving the country is the only way to escape the dire situation. Therefore, authority (especially NaSaKa) is pushing out Rohingyas to the sea through HaisshuRata (Alay Than Kyaw) Sea Beach by collecting some tax. 

In FattarKilla (Mrauk-U), Arakan- At 6:30PM on 30th Novemeber 2012, in Rida Village, three Rohingyas namely Hafez Amjad Hussain (Age 22), Sondula Muktar Hussain (Age 55), and Mohammed Hakim (Age 60) went to a betel shop. Four army officers accompanied by Rakhine Village Administrator U Maung Than came to the shop and asked Hafez Amjad Hussain whether he was a Moulavi (Religious Scholar) or not. Upon saying “Yes,” he was brutally beaten till he became half-dead.

Burma (MNN) ― It's a situation that is being ignored by the international media and governments around the world.

According to a team member with Partners Relief & Development (PRAD), sectarian violence broke out in Arakan State, Western Burma in May 2012 between the Buddhist Rakhine people and the predominately-Muslim Rohingya.

Despite recent assertions from the Burma government that the situation was back to normal, violence continues to occur, and thousands of people have been displaced. The UNHCR has said that about 80,000 people have been displaced in and around the Sittwe and Maungdaw by the violence. More recent reports from Partners staff on the ground in Arakan State suggest that the number is actually much higher. Some suggest that it may be as high as 200,000.

Why are they attacking each other? That team member, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, says, "The Rakhine people consider the Rohingya illegal immigrants living in their land, even though many of the Rahingya have lived there for many generations and have no other home."

While they have hated one other for decades, the most recent violence took place after a Rakhine girl was assaulted. "The Rakhine retaliated, violence broke out, Rohingya villages were burned to the ground, and people were brutality murdered."

The government stepped in and separated the Rohingya into camps outside the city. "The problem is that in order for the Rohingya to be moved to the camp, they have to sign a statement declaring that they are an illegal immigrant. So, the Rohingya are unwilling to do that."

The PRAD staff member says, "The people who are not willing to sign those statements are fending for themselves and setting up shelters along the road; and the population is swelling. It's becoming a humanitarian crisis, and we are seeing small children and infants dying on a regular basis."

"The crowd of those needing care is growing every day and pressing in upon us. We need help. More teams need to come. More governments of the world need to speak loudly against what is happening here. More donations are necessary to provide any relief," observes a PRAD staff member who is currently in Sittwe, Burma.

The staff member says PRAD has been there serving for about a month. "During that time, we have not seen any other NGOs or groups come and work alongside us, or even on their own."

He says it's unlike any relief situation he's ever worked in. "The biggest difference is the total absence of hope. There's a real hopelessness in this situation. It's not like a natural disaster where the situation can return back to normal very soon."

He suggests this situation reminds him of the famine in Ethiopia.

PRAD hopes that they're Christian foundations and testimony can change that. "We are trying to be a light in a very dark place. We need a lot of prayer, we need financial support to keep doing what we're doing, and we need other groups and other individuals to come alongside us and help in this effort."

PRAD is calling on international aid organizations and governments to quickly engage in the humanitarian work needed in Arakan State. If more aid doesn't arrive soon, there will be widespread deaths, especially among children.

To help PRAD financially, or to partner with them, click here.

RB News

December 03, 2012

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency Ufuk Gokcen, recently hosted representatives of several members of ethnic minorities from Myanmar at the OIC mission in New York. The delegates includes representatives from Karen, Kachin, Shan, Chin, Rohingya, guests and human right activists, and some diplomats from the United Nations.  

Representatives from each ethnic minority provided updates on the current situation on the ground in their respective states and regions in Myanmar, and stressed the need for a unified voice for universal human rights for all the ethnic groups, including those less privileged, in Myanmar. Prof. Dr. Wakar Uddin, Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union and Chairman of the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America, and a renowned Rohingya leader (identity not available) of the Rohingya Muslim women in Myanmar represented the Rohingya community in Myanmar. 

Both Rohingya leaders echoed the calls of the representatives of the other ethnic minorities with regard to human rights, political rights, mutual respects and support within the minorities, community developments, active participation in the political process during the democratic transition, and sustaining the collective efforts to bring peace and tranquility in several states in Myanmar. 

Both the Rohingya leaders along with minority representatives and diplomats also called for engagement with Myanmar Government with dialogue at various levels starting with confidence building with mutual trusts. All the delegates expressed their gratitude to the OIC for taking the important initiatives in Burma for humanitarian aids for all the affected people by the recent waves of violence. The minority delegates also discussed to garner supports from other minorities for cooperation with OIC, and appealed OIC for the continuous humanitarian support for the people of Myanmar.

Mahan Min Khant
RB News

December 03, 2012

“Warning signs” are in place for a genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, an Al Jazeera investigation has been told by a leading expert in the field.

According to Professor William Schabas, until recently President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the findings of an Al Jazeera documentary reveal that “we’re moving into a zone where the word can be used”.

In June, Myanmar state media reported 78 deaths during sectarian violence between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities. The Al Jazeera team discovered that official statements provided only a small part of what took place.

Instead, Rohingya testify suffering systematic torture, ethnic cleansing and execution-style killings. The program found evidence of at least two mass graves and the deliberate murder of minors, some of whom were burnt alive. The program includes eyewitness accounts of the extra-judicial killings of more than 200 people during five days in June.

The Hidden Genocide also provides compelling evidence that the killings were at times carried out with the support and participation of the Myanmar military, state security forces and local government officials.

Amongst the findings are:

The Hidden Genocide discovers a secret memorandum written in 1988 by Rakhine nationalists. It sets out policies aimed at restricting the ability of the Rohingya to travel freely, to prevent their access to tertiary education and for controlling their birth rate. There are today obstacles to prevent marriage within the ethnic group, including the requirement of a large payment to allow a legal marriage or be threatened with five years’ imprisonment.

The election in 2010 of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) has placed in the state government a leadership that denies the existence of the Rohingya as an ethnic group. The party leader, Dr Aye Maung, has repeatedly said that the people who call themselves Rohingya should be deported from the land of their birth to third countries.

Dr Aye Chan, a Rakhine historian based in Japan has returned for the first time to Myanmar since 1988 and is at the forefront of a body of quasi-academic material that denies the existence of the Rohingya race, claiming they are ‘a fabricated people’.

According to Prof. Schabas, one of the foremost experts on international criminal law, “We’re moving into a zone where the word can be used (in the case of the Rohingya). When you see measures preventing births, trying to deny the identity of the people, hoping to see that they really are eventually, that they no longer exist, denying their history, denying the legitimacy of the right to live where they live, these are all warning signs that mean that it’s not frivolous to envisage the use of the term genocide.”

The findings are the result of a four-month investigation into events in western Myanmar this June 2012. It is produced by British filmmaker Phil Rees and will be broadcast at the following times:

Al Jazeera English (GMT)

Al Jazeera Arabic (AST)

The Jakarta Globe
December 03, 2012

The Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus supports the United Nations’ calls for urgent action to deliver humanitarian aid to displaced peoples in the country. 

While expressing her appreciation of progress in Myanmar, AIPMC president Eva Kusuma Sundari urged the country’s government to quickly realize the recommendation in the resolution. 

“We call on Myanmar’s authorities to improve human rights conditions within their country, especially for thousands of Rohingya Muslims who are facing systematic violence in Rakhine state,” she said on Sunday. “The government should guarantee protection and basic rights of their own people, including the Rohingyas.” 

The AIPMC is comprised of legislators from the 10 Asean member states. 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are more than 400,000 internally displaced people in Myanmar. The UN body said that some 115,000 have been forced to flee their homes in Rakhine state on ethnic grounds since intercommunal violence broke out in June. 

Meanwhile, more than 235,000 have been run out of their home towns in Karen state, while more than 75,000 have been displaced by the ongoing war between the Burmese Army and the Kachin Independence Army in the country’s far north. 

“People should not be prosecuted because they come from different ethnic and religious groups,” said Eva. 

AIPMC vice president Kraisak Choonhavan also spoke out against the prejudices on the Muslim Rohingya community. 

“The government’s denial of the very legitimacy of the Rohingya ethnic group constitutes a major barrier to finding a long-term solution to the intercommunal problems in Rakhine state and betrays an inherent ethno-nationalist superiority complex of the predominantly Buddhist-Burman government of Myanmar,” he told Mizzima.com, which specializes on Burmese news. The Thai legislator added that the immediate concern was the need to get urgent humanitarian assistance to those displaced by the violence. 

“But the greater fear is that if the government, ethno-nationalist political parties as well as elements in the Buddhist clergy continue to label these people as ‘Bengali’ interlopers with no rights, then this violence could spread so much further, putting the safety, dignity and lives of hundreds of thousands of people at risk,” he was quoted as saying.

The Brunei Times
December 02, 2012

BRUNEI is in a unique position to address the plight of the Muslim Rohingya people in Myanmar who are facing persecution and ethnic cleansing, the chief of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said yesterday.

"Brunei being both a member of OIC and ASEAN is in a unique position to help address the violation of human rights and the plight of the Rohingya people, particularly (since) they are suffering from ethnic cleansing," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at a press conference following a public lecture he gave at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).

Ihsanoglu is in the Sultanate on a three-day visit, where he also met with His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.

The OIC secretary-general said the monarch expressed particular concern for the violence between Muslims and Buddhists in the coastal Rakhine state of Myanmar.

"We had a very fruitful meeting... We have exchanged views on the current issues in the Muslim world and the situation in Syria and different parts of the world, with special reference to Myanmar."

According to media reports, Myanmar President Thein Sein is set to visit the Sultanate next week and will also make a stop at UBD.

During his lecture on the modern Muslim world at the university, Ihsanoglu said Nobel peace laureate and pro-democracy doyenne Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to speak out against the human rights violations of the Rohingyas, described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

"She's only interested in the human rights of the Buddhists because they are human beings and the Muslims are not," said Ihsanoglu in a response to a question from the audience.

After an OIC summit in Kazakhstan, the secretary-general said he wrote to both Suu Kyi and Myanmar President Thein Sein to besiege them to address the human rights violations in Rakhine, but there was no response from the former.

Suu Kyi, one of the world's most celebrated pro-democracy and human rights campaigners, has remained uncharacteristically silent on one of the most urgent humanitarian issues facing her country.

She told the BBC last month that she did not want to take sides because she wanted to foster reconciliation between the Buddhist and Muslim communities.

The UN estimates that 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, where they face heavy-handed restrictions: they need permission to marry, have more than two children and travel outside of their villages.

The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship, even though many of their families have lived in the country for generations.

1. Ziabul Haque S/o Hamid Hussein (25) from Narzi Quarter Block 1
2.  Mawnura Begum D/o Mohammed Rafique (23) from Narzi Quarter Block 3
3.  Salim S/o Bodi Rahman (22) from Narzi Quarter Block 4    
4. Anwar Begum D/o Ahmed Hussein (20) from Narzi Quarter Block 11.”